Summary

The day before the Athina Olympics opened, the defending 200 champion, [Kostas Kenteris] and the [women's 2000 100] silver medalist, [Aikaterini Thanou], missed a mandatory drug test. A few hours later they showed up at a hospital, claiming they had been injured in a motorcycle accident. But no accident had been reported, no eyewitnesses to it were produced, no damaged motorcycle was ever seen, and they had no significant visible injuries. After being question by the IOC, they withdrew from the Olympics. A Greek police probe concluded on 20 August that the pair had faked the motorcycle accident to avoid the drug test. This affected the 200 final as the Greek crowd protested vociferously, after Kenteris had been suspended for missing the drug test, delaying the start of the race. The final was eventually won rather comfortably by American [Shawn Crawford], who led his teammates, [Bernard Williams, III] and [Justin Gatlin], across the line. The US sweep was the sixth time that this had been done by US runners in the Olympic 200, but the first time since 1984.

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